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The band's underlying strength remains Chaplin's ability to turn a melodic phrase with grace and dexterity, which fails to lose its vitality no matter the musical context, but Keane's willingness to take these left-hand turns deserves its own share of accolades.
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Perfect Symmetry bursts out of the gate with a suite of giddy, '80s-inflected Brit pop songs that, surprisingly, suit the band well.
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Despite its boldness, Perfect Symmetry is as swollen with corny grandeur as a political convention, guided by the delusion that a pompous speech somehow becomes fun if it’s accompanied by a balloon drop.
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It is a surprise and a thrill to hear that even as the band enters its "artsy" phase--expanding its instrumental palette to include mewling saws and clattering percussion--the songs remain uniformly excellent from stem to stern.
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Perfect Symmetry is often an exhilarating and unexpected pop record from a band you'd have thought incapable of either, and there's something genuinely life-affirming about that.
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As rock goes, Symmetry remains a relatively quiet riot, but in the context of the band itself, it's a welcome revelation.
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MojoThe trio have bounced back from frontman Tim Rice-Oxley's surprise 2006 stinct in rehab by discovering the '80s. And not in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.108]
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While this isn't the daring brave leap forward that was whispered about when Spiralling was released, it will no doubt prove another multi-million seller for the trio from Battle.
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Musically, they’ve ripped off swathes of things contemporary and popular to make them ‘hip’, but it just feels like some dodgy old guy at a bus stop telling you he digs Klaxons.
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That means when Perfect Symmetry is at its best, you’ll think of a-ha, and when it’s at its worst...Go West, anyone? And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and underneath it all, this is very much a Keane album.
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Q MagazineIt's one of the least boring records you'll hear this year. [Nov 2008, p.108]
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Keane still have a tendency to get mushy and melancholic when the ballads get big (check out the meaning- of-life musings on the synth-whipped title track), but even the mopiest moments leave you in good cheer.
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Unfortunately, Perfect Symmetry is an album characterized by its heavy-handedness, so while it sounds as though the band was aiming for Echo & the Bunnymen, they hit Duran Duran or Simple Minds instead, making for a brand new record that often sounds badly dated.
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On album three, Keane trick out their pretty piano melodies with tasty synths ('The Lovers Are Losing'), booming rap beats ('Spiralling'), and fuzzy new-wave guitars ('You Haven’t Told Me Anything').
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Often during Perfect Symmetry, listeners of a certain age might find themselves recalling Simple Minds or Tears for Fears. Whether that thought fills you with delight or revulsion rather determines the album's appeal.
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It's ambitious, triumphantly executed stuff--melodically, lyrically, Tim Oxley-Rice is a vastly superior songsmith to Chris Martin--and will doubtless shortly be inescapable. But you can't shake the dispiriting feeling it might have all been expressly commissioned by Dave Cameron for the opening night of London 2012.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 79 out of 93
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Mixed: 7 out of 93
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Negative: 7 out of 93
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Sep 30, 2010
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May 26, 2018Incredible album. One of the best album of all time. Better than all Coldplay's albums
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Feb 26, 2017